Hey there, thanks for checking out this week’s edition of VR Links! A different mix of stuff this week, but the biggest VR news for me is that I’ve spending what little free time I’ve had lately playing Battle Dome. Yes, the graphics aren’t great, but it’s the best multiplayer gaming experience I’ve had in VR to date. If you have the Vive it’s well worth checking out. Plus I need more people to play with.

As always, please get in touch if you’re working on something in VR or have a link you think I should include in next week’s edition. Also, if you like my newsletter would you mind sharing it?

As I sit here, writing this review, I’m having trouble. Not because it’s hard to find the words, or because I can’t quite decide what I’d like to say about Fruit Ninja VR, but because I really, really want to get back inside.

The idea of hiding Clueless in a panoramic video is more compelling than tweaking pitch or speed. It is indicative of the potential for Easter eggs in VR, of hidden delights and rumors that can spread organically and be chased down.

Envelop VR is an “immersive computing platform” for Microsoft Windows that’s aiming to not only do away with those monitor limitations, bringing your desktop PC experience into an expansive realm (something apps like Virtual Desktop are already tackling), but also to enhance the functionality of those applications to make the most of VR via a “powerful SDK that will allow you to extend your games and applications into VR.”

Rec Room is a new social VR platform for HTC Vive from indie studio Against Gravity, and as a project currently in Early Access for the low low cost of absolutely free, it’s quickly becoming a success on Steam.

In all of our VR pain control studies, patients, (especially children and teenaged burn patients) have shown enthusiasm about participating.
The effectiveness of virtual reality pain distraction has now been documented in a small but growing number of clinical studies published in peer-reviewed medical journals.

The days of operating on female pigs are over for obstetrics and gynecology residents at Rush University Medical Center. The 24 doctors in the four-year program will practice surgeries on a virtual reality system beginning later this summer.

Oculus’s researchers are looking beyond headsets that let you see virtual worlds. In hopes of making virtual reality feel even more immersive, they’re now working on technology that could let you feel virtual objects and tell what direction they’re coming from. HapticWave, a project from Oculus and Facebook, does this by using a circular metal plate set atop a ring of electromagnet actuators to send vibrations to your bare hand, which is placed in the center of the plate.

It’s been less than a year since the consumer Gear VR was first shown off and it already seems as though Samsung and Oculus are regrouping to push out a new version of the pre-eminent mobile VR headset.

Before Valve settled into the product path of the HTC Vive, they were exploring other random facets of AR and VR. Here are some examples of random prototypes as well as some custom tools that were created along the way.

Today, one of Apple’s original inventions relating to a future headset was granted to them by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Apple’s newly granted patent covers their invention relating to “Methods and apparatus, including computer program products, implementing and using techniques for projecting a source image in a head-mounted display apparatus for a user.

SoundStage is a music instrument sandbox built specifically for room-scale virtual reality. Whether you’re a professional DJ creating a new sound, or a hobbyist who wants to rock out on virtual drums, SoundStage gives you a diverse toolset to express yourself.

Details about this piece are sketchy right now, but from the sounds of it you’ll be able to sit in one of the best seats in the house and experience at least some of the storied show. Taking place on August 15th 1965, the memorable night saw the group perform hits like A Hard Day’s Night and Help!. Exactly how the event is being recreated in VR is unclear, though we’d imagine some CGI magic has been employed seeing as it would have taken a heck of a lot of foresight to capture footage that could have been stitched together to make a VR video 51 years ago.

The most recent creation, “Not Get,” moves the experience to HTC Vive from Gear VR. Honestly, the more advanced hardware made it far more like an experience and less like a music video spread 360 degrees.

T-Mobile has announced its new Home Run Derby VR experience, something it is showing off both at the MLB All-Star Fan Fest in San Diego and in its retail stores across the nation. When fans put the VR headset on, the Home Run Derby VR experience puts them in the batter’s position where they get to take a shot at hitting a home run, doing so in what appears to be the Petco Park stadium.